


Startling Conclusions

by BlossomofFireandRain



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Black Romance, F/M, M/M, Red Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 16:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5832172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomofFireandRain/pseuds/BlossomofFireandRain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How does that even work, being red for Eridan?  Like you know they’ve been hanging out more, since they were sprited together that one time, and you’ve had a bit of a similar experience, in that you have a standing date every wednesday with Nepeta for tea and anime, but red for Eridan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Startling Conclusions

**Author's Note:**

> I was sitting around, trying to knit, but thoughts about how Feferi would solve shit, balancing this out, kept me from actually knitting, and I fucking love Feferi. So I threw it at a document, and I hope I got it all out of my head right!

You feel like you’ve been shot. 

 

“...II’m 2o 2orry, FF….. I just...Iit’2 my fault, not your2….you’re an amaziing mate2priite, and II’m 2o fucking red for you, but...II’m red for hiim two, and II can’t….. II’m ju2t gonna….2top… Yeah, 2orry….” 

 

He absconds before you can even respond, and you already know there’s no way you can catch up with him when he’s flying, but you still want to throw yourself at his door and scream at him. 

 

You can’t though. You still feel like you’re frozen on the spot, too off balance from what he said to move.

 

Eridan? 

 

_ Eridan? _

 

Your legs kind of give out after a moment, and you find yourself sitting on the gravel. 

 

**_Eridan?_ **

 

How does that even work, being red for Eridan?  Like you know they’ve been hanging out more, since they were sprited together that one time, and you’ve had a bit of a similar experience, in that you have a standing date every wednesday with Nepeta for tea and anime, but red for Eridan? 

 

You think that this has got to be the weirdest of feelings, this complete befuddlement, mixed with broken quad-ed sadness and shock. You want to go and hug Sollux till he stops crying, till you stop crying. You want to smack him over the head and then check it carefully (Maybe even get Jane over too, to check with you.)  It feels like you have puzzle pieces that don’t even go with each other, and you can’t make sense of them. 

 

“Um. Are you okay?”

 

Suddenly all your feelings have a focus, and you whip around, getting your feet under you.  Whatever Eridan sees in your face makes him freeze, and you lunge forward. 

 

Whatever foul qualities Eridan has, you will give him this: He is fucking fast on his feet. 

 

“FEF! FEF! FEF!  WWHAT THE FUCK, I THOUGHT WWE WWERE OKAY!”

 

Your feet slam the ground, and you stretch out your hands for his scarf flying behind him.

 

“WWHAT THE FUCK, NO!!!” 

He sees you and grabs the tail of it and pulls it in front of him as he runs.

 

“KAR!!!!! HELP!”

 

You are going to glubbing eat him, and then there won’t be any more problems. 

 

He skids to a stop in front of you, and you don’t even pause to wonder why, you just throw yourself at him…..over the embarkment into the water below. 

 

The jolt of cold saltwater through your gills is the first call to actually start thinking, but by that time you’re trying to avoid rocks even as the waves throw you at them.  

 

You remember where you are on your mental map, and quietly curse everything.  This is that awful coast of the land that you would never try to swim through. It’s just deep enough that the water can move you easily, but shallow and rocky enough that every time it does, you get thrown against heavy rocks and gravel patches.  Worse, you have to edge around the coast for a ways before you actually get to a patch of land where you can climb back up. 

 

The water is dark around you, full of the debris and sand it pulls up in these shallow waters, and your gills sting with the grit that’s slapping them. Instinctively you hurl yourself towards deeper water, swimming as best you can to avoid the rocks, some of which actually stick above the surface, they’re so large.   It feels like it takes forever for you to get to water that’s calmer.  The moment you do, you have to curl up and take deep gulps of water, brushing at your gills as lightly as possible, trying to get rid of the grit, wincing as your fingers pull it over your gills. 

 

Nearby you can hear/feel someone else doing the same thing, and if you weren’t so tired from fighting the waves, you would feel incredibly satisfied. It’s only when the water does a terrific sway-jolt that you realize both how far out and how dark it is. You don’t even have to surface to know there’s a bad storm above. Or that you need to get out of the water  _ now. _

 

When you were little, you remember being held by your mom as it stormed above. Down so deep, the storm didn’t really affect you, but you’d swim up later and find the debris in the shallower areas. Once you got caught in one, and it was only that there was deeper water close by that you avoided it. 

 

There’s not any deeper water for a ways, this is all shallow coastal, and you are so fucked. 

 

The water spins over again, and you hiss even as you reach a decision. You’re so frustrated with Eridan, you can’t believe you have to share this next thing with him too.

 

You grab his scarf, not taking any care to pull lightly, and once you’ve got his attention, you motion for him to follow you.  He’s not arrogant enough that he doesn’t look worried by the change in weather, and he cautiously does follow you.   

It’s not a far swim, but it’s still rough, getting to where that overhang is underwater, but once you do, you can swim and climb up into a cave that’s full of air, a little safe spot even as the water ripples through the opening. 

 

You spit out water, coughing to clear your gills before you can actually curl back against one of the walls, sore and covered in scratches. 

 

“Fuckin’ hell, Fef!  Wwhat the fuck wwas that!?” 

 

“Sollux says he’s red for both me and you.”

 

“...Oh….” 

 

The silence stretches between you, and all at once the impact of the conversation with Sollux comes back at you, and you find yourself wanting to cry, but furious at the same time.

 

“How the glub could you do this to me, Eridan!?”

 

“I...fuck… Fef, I wasn’t tryin’ to…. I thought it wwas just me, and I wwas just gonna shut up and try to be friends….” 

 

“Well good job there!   It’s not enough you shoot me, now you have to try and steal my matesprite!” 

 

“I fuckin’ said sorry for that, and you know it!  And I wwasn’t tryin’ to steal him!”

 

“Well congrats! You did!”  A twisted spark of something boils in your guts, and you curve your hip outwards. “You could always have me black instead of him red, you know…”  If he takes this bait, you’re going to punch him in the face, then tell Solfish.

 

Instead he glubbing sputters, and hisses. 

 

“Wwhat!? No! Wwhat the fuck, Fef, wwhy wwould you evven say that, it’s not like you’re tokins that can be swwitched out!”

 

You kind of glubbing hate him for that.  After the game you were trying to not notice him. He said sorry, he stopped fucking shooting people, he wasn’t your responsibility anymore, done.  But somehow he kept slipping in, Karcatfish talking about things him and Eridan had gone and done together, Eridan playing video games with Solfish when you came over to surprise him, and above all, having the gall to still be a brat, but somehow remember that the trolls he was hanging around were also people. It was annoying, it was frustrating, how dare he change now, after all the sweeps you spent trying to calm him down? And then fucking shooting you! And Sollux.  How could Sollux even see anything to be red for?  All you feel when you look at him is an extreme urge to bite. 

 

But then he speaks up again. 

 

“Look, Fef, I’m fuckin’ sorry for killin’ you. Of all the things I’vve done, that’s the one I regret the most. But I can’t enter a kismesitude with you ovver that. Or ovver Sol. And I don’t wwant you red anymore.  ….Sorry….”

 

He speaks like he’s trying to sooth you, and closes his eyes like he’s waiting for a blow, and you feel something hot and stinging fill your thoracic cavity, and you punch him in the guts.

 

You don’t want to be soothed by him. 

 

“Wwhat the fu-”   He doesn’t finish that, as his mouth is too busy fighting yours.  It blisters, this feeling, and you want to pour all of your anger into him as you bite his lips, you want to pour yourself out until whatever you have between you is solved.

 

His hands fly up, trying to grab at something, and he finally finds the strap of your bathing suit and yanks you off.

 

“WWHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY, FEF!?”

 

“I  _ hate _ you.”

 

He gapes at you like you grew two heads, and you hiss in impatience.

 

“You  _ were _ a brat. You were one, and I cared so much about you and trying to care for you, and now you’re not, and where was that earlier!?  But you’re still impatient and frivolous, and you never listen, not even now, and we’ve got a bigger mess than whatever’s going on between us, and you’re  _ still  _ focused on it, and yet you’re not the brat you were!  How dare you become better now?”    
  


He gulps.  “Um, Fef, you’re kinda focused on it too…”

 

“I know!” You throw up your hands. “Because of you! Because somehow you’re still able to distract me! And that’s frustrating, because you keep reminding me of good stuff!”

 

He flares up.  

 

“Oh, so it’s my fault you can’t stay focused! Miss goody-goody-two-shoes wwannabe leader who can’t take responsibility for her owwn actions!  You threww me in the wwater! On the rocks! You’re alwways so ready to act like you’re so compassionate an’ kind, but unless it meets your criteria for feelin’s, it’s not worth being upset ovver!  But the moments yours get hurt, fun’s ovver! And you run people ovver, and wwonder wwhy they don’t think of you as safe!” 

 

He’s leaned up in your space, but you’re a little stunned to pay attention to that. He’s yelled, he’s whined, but it’s always been with this air of self-entitled brat, and now he’s not spoiled at all, just angry. He’s right on the money, and you kind of want to bite him for noticing. 

 

“Fin! So I’m glubbing flawed, but so are you!  Now do you want my bloody spade!?”

 

“I wwant your fuckin’ spade!” 

 

“Well good!” 

 

You both pause, breathing heavily, then kind of deflate. You’re still stuck in this cave till the storm passes, and nothing but that’s been settled. 

 

“Um. So what do we do about Solfish?” 

 

“Shit, Fef, if I knew, I’d fuckin’ tell you. Just. Fuck. ….I wwish I kneww the off-button for feelin’s….. Both mine an’ his….”

 

“...What if we both date him?” 

 

“Wwhat, like we swwitch off bein’ red wwith him?”

 

“No, Eridan.”  You roll your eyes. “ What if we both date him red?  At the same time?  He said he likes us both, so why not? I mean, unless you’re gonna get shell-ous…..”

 

“Wwoww. Fuck you, I can date him longer than you wwithout gettin’ jealous. ...Besides, don’t wwe need to  _ ask  _ him before wwe decide this?” 

 

This is exactly why you hate him: He acts like a brat, but then he has startling bits of awareness that he never had before.  _ Asking  _ Sollux?  Not just  _ deciding  _ it for him?  Not  _ assuming  _ he’d feel blessed to have the benefit of two highblooded matesprites? You want to kick him, so you do. 

 

“Fin, yes, okay, we’ll do that. As schooner as we get out of here.” 

 

“Ow.” he deadpans. “ _ Shore _ , your majesty.” 

 

“Pfft! Now shut the glub up and go to sleep. I’m sick of hearing you whelk.” 

 

“Don’ wwanna, fuck off.” 

 

It’s a tentative thing, but you ease over next to him, careful of your sore spots. 

 

“Bet you I can fall asleep before you.”

 

“I see wwhat you’re doin’, and you’re on.” 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

When you crawl up on the beach the next day, you and Eridan both look like leopard seals. Someone sees you comming up the beach, and by the time you reach the middle of the gathering of hives, there’s a whole group waiting to welcome you.  Nepeta hits you like a bag of rocks, claws scraping at your back, even as she fusses and tries to clean your scratches. You can hear Karkrab hitting a pitch that almost hurts your ears, before he deflates into not-blubbering, and for once you don’t feel upset that it’s Eridan hugging him and trying to reassure him that he’s here and whole. You see Solfish standing in the back, eyes wide, with huge bags under them, looking both relieved and conflicted, and you take your opportunity. 

 

Grabbing Eridan by the collar you pull him over to Sollux, and pull them both into a Sollux sandwich. He looks like he’s gonna start crying and you kiss at his eyes even as Eridan tries to figure out where his hands go while not actually letting go of Sollux. 

 

“Shoosh. Did you really think I’d just give you up, Solfish?” 

 

He looks like a mess, and so does Eridan, but you’re okay with this. 

 

They’re your messes. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at NuclearVampire.tumblr.com


End file.
